How / where to print...

I'm not sure if anyone already posted anything about this but I was wondering how and where everyone else gets their zines printed / copied? At the moment I'm at Uni and thankfully have access to free photocopies by borrowing lecturers' copy cards mwah haha so I can do it pretty easily there, but I leave in about 7 months and I'm not sure how I'll do it from then on.

Does anyone print stuff from home on their own printer, or do people tend to get them done somewhere or go to places like libraries and use their photocopiers...?

I would print a copy off my laser printer, then take them to the copy shop and make copies. Sometimes I try to nick a copy or 2 off work ;) The copy shop i go to allows little freedom on my part to do stuff like invert colors, etc etc so I only get to do that at work. I actually worked out that it will cost about the same ~5 cents to print via my laser, or at the copy shop.

I did it that way too, initially, but the photocopiers I used (at my university, they look pretty high tech - maybe that's the problem!) really messed up the copies. What looked nice on the laser printed copies came out horrible on the photocopies.

So from now on I'm laser printing all the way. It's not ideal, but unless I find some better photocopiers, it's the only method I can use.

janelloshea said:

I would print a copy off my laser printer, then take them to the copy shop and make copies. Sometimes I try to nick a copy or 2 off work ;) The copy shop i go to allows little freedom on my part to do stuff like invert colors, etc etc so I only get to do that at work. I actually worked out that it will cost about the same ~5 cents to print via my laser, or at the copy shop.

As a zinester living in ultra-expensive Paris, I proudly photocopy my zines. A cheap place to photocopy is the Quartier de l'Horloge, in the thirs Arrondissement, which is a building complex in Rue Rambuteau filled with photocopiers. It's just behind the Centre Beaubourg, known by eveybody outside Paris as the Pompidou Museum, Metro Rambuteau (it's not so far either from the Hotel de Ville metro stop, which is more convinient for me).

As far as I know, and as I've been told, the Chinese copy shop is actually the cheapest, plus, attendants are helpful and the print quality is not so bad. They have some (rather expensive) colour papers to print your material, but I don't know if you're allowed to use your own printing paper...

If not, as Elaine pointed, I think Office Depot is a good deal (at Boulevard Richard Lenoir, although there must be other shops everywhere in the city). Copies are quite cheap if you buy enough of them, you can use your favourite paper in their machines, and quality is top. I don't like having to make copies in such a big company, but I'm a student, and selling my zines never really covers the printing costs.

Because I am doing silkscreen, I always hand-made my cover of my zines. For everything inside, Iwas super lucky to havea boyfriend who can print it for free at his job. Things change, my boyfriend quit his job so I am a wondering what I am going to do for the next one...

I copy mine at a local place, it's nine cents per double-sided copy, almost half as cheap as Staples and Office Max and there's none of the shiftiness of stealing copies from OM (which I have done). Self serve machines, really high quality, and there's a price break at 150 copies. And a self-serve guillotine that is always sharp, and a big windowsill to spread out on, oh I love this place so much. If you're in the Baltimore area it's the Towson Copy Center in Towson, MD... the guy said I'm not the only person who's ever copied zines there either, so maybe the word is out.

(When I finished copying my zines I wanted to say "you're the first copy place I haven't had to steal from!" but I knew that would be bad form.)